Seasons of Tea
by Liralen Li
Summary: Byakuya invites Hakkai to share a traditional tea moment when Hakkai gets a little lost in the woods; but other ties and responsibilities prevail in their first encounter. With the inevitability of time, there is a meeting w/ Tenpo. M for ch. 4 lemon.
1. In the Autumn Woods

_Author's Note  
_

_Written to the prompt "Enjoying a traditional tea moment." from lj user"2metaldog". Thank you, so much, this was a lot of fun._

* * *

Hakkai realized he must have gone through some gate when the air filled with autumn leaves. He'd left the other three in the woods, certainly, but they were dense green summer woods warm and drowsing with heat and insects. This air was crisp, clean, and cool and filled with flame-colored oak and maple leaves. He looked back to try and retrace his steps, but the dense carpet of fallen leaves showed nothing.

There was a motion in the distance, blurry in his right, artificial eye, but a flash of white amid the flames to his left. Perhaps that might be someone who could help him out.

He forged through the woods and realized, gradually, that what seemed wild was actually meticulously and carefully landscaped. The maples had been carefully pruned; the sprawls of late-blooming chrysanthemum and asters had been placed to their best advantage by the streams and out of the shade of the trees. The stream's stones had been carefully laid along its bed, directing the water in a meandering line that looked as if it were natural; but it led right by a beautiful little teahouse set under the shade of three fire maples.

And right next to the little stream was a bench, made of driftwood and old stone. Next to the bench was a rock, covered in soft mosses, gray and yellow lichen, with a deep depression hollowed in the top. There were no chisel marks on the grey surface that Hakkai could see, and he sat down on the bench to contemplate what must have been a water worn, natural bowl, an ancient, beautifully placed _tsukubai_ that could never be bought for any price.

Slowly, Hakkai followed the uneven rim of the bowl with his eyes. He took in the textures and shades of the stone, the growth on it, and the contrast against the glory of the leaves and trees around him. The murmur and cool clean scent of water washed over him; and, for just a moment, he allowed himself to relax, to not think, and just experience everything around him.

Then Hakkai felt an immense amount of chi power gently pour into the clear glade. It had a taste to it, a scent to it, rare and clear in the cool air and utterly incongruous with the autumn flames all about him. It was the heady perfume of sakura blossoms, the scent that only appeared for two or three days in the midst of cool spring. He looked up wide-eyed as the center of all that power approached. It came from behind the little tea house. When that center rounded the corner, Hakkai schooled his features carefully.

He was beautiful. After being around Sanzo, Goyjo, and Goku day in and day out, most people didn't strike Hakkai that way anymore; but this man would have stood out even with them. His movements were like theirs, graceful, aware, balanced for attack and defense. He wore a traditional black kimono, though with a sash of white. He also wore hakama and an unusual white haori. At his side was a traditional katana, sheathed, but with a well-maintained and worn grip, so not an emblem, a working tool. His hair was as black as Hakkai's own, but long and constrained by i_kenseikan_/i. On seeing the hairpiece with the katana, Hakkai went to his knees.

"Apologies, sir, but I seem to have lost my way. I do not wish to interrupt your chanoyu, but could you please direct me... out or back to Yellow Pine Mountain?" Hakkai did not look up, but he did keep track of where those sandaled feet were. No use being stupid.

The feet were still. Then a melodious, deep voice said, "I wished only to practice alone today. Given that I did not wish to hurry, you have presented no real interruption. As for your other request, I'm afraid all I have is a question. How did you get here? Living, mere human souls aren't supposed to be able to get on this very plane of existence, much less in my tea garden."

Hakkai thought quietly about the fact that he might have been ambushed and killed without even knowing it. Then he took a slow breath. "Am I alive, then, sir?"

"Indeed." Those feet walked careful paces near Hakkai. That power, that pressure built up and instinctively Hakkai breathed in, slow and steady, centering, gathering up his chi to fend off that power. "Hm... Interesting. You may look up if you are capable of it."

Hakkai looked up into shining pewter eyes fringed by long, black lashes. His chi was not strained but he could feel the effort he had to put into simply moving as he ought to be able to move.

"You are highly unusual, human." Then entirely conversationally, that deep voice continued, "I hate unusual humans."

Hakkai smiled back placidly. "That's the first time I've heard anyone attempt to insult me by calling me human, sir. That's quite... refreshing."

A none-too-gentle snort and narrowed pewter eyes met Hakkai's last word. "I am Kuchiki Byakuya, Head of the Kuchiki Clan and Captain of the Sixth Division."

"I am Cho Hakkai." Hakkai said and then added with a smile, "Which is as much as I want to be."

"What do you know of chado?" asked Byakuya.

"Very little," Hakka admitted. "Not even enough to not embarrass myself, I believe. The orphanage was rather... bereft of the finer arts."

"Orphanage." The slender man's eyes closed and then opened again to measure Hakkai. "Would you care to join me today?"

"I'd prefer to go back to the people that depend on me, sir." Hakkai met the measured look, finding that he had to breathe a little more carefully simply to breathe at all.

"And I would prefer some measure of peace before finding another rip in reality, but you have a point." Byakuya took a deep, slow breath. "Please, show me the way you came?"

Hakkai smiled. "Well, once I've left, you'll have your peace, sir. The chaos seems to follow me and my friends, rather than stay to bother those we leave behind."

"You too, hm? Please..." Byakuya indicated the path from the bench.

Hakkai stood and felt odd walking in front of the noble, so he dropped back just enough to be able to indicate the direction they walked, but still see the man in black and white. "Did you... did you make this garden or inherit it?"

Byakuya looked up at the flame maples and oaks, watched the stream for a moment, and then looked back at Hakkai. "It is mostly inherited. The retainers do most of the maintenance. I have only directed the shaping of it for the last century and a half."

Hakkai blinked in his shock. "Century and a half..."

"I am shinigami," Byakuya said, as if that explained everything and, on thinking about it, Hakkai realized that, perhaps, it did.

"If Death is always so beautiful, perhaps I should fear it even less," Hakkai said, musingly, as his feet whispered through crisp leaves and the warm musty scent of leaf mould rose to his nose.

Byakuya gave the slightest of smiles. "We are not all... beautiful. It is better not to seek us out, especially if you have attachments."

Hakkai had to laugh at that. "Aye. Attachments. I have three that call me away from even an offer of tea from you. But your garden is calming and so beautifully deliberate. I would like to thank you for that."

Byakuya inclined his head slightly. "You are welcome."

They walked in a comfortable silence back up the path Hakkai had walked in on and they both stopped when they saw it.

It was a single oak tree, as green and succulent as if it were in mid-summer, incongruous and shocking against all the dying flame colors all around it. Hakkai extended his youkai senses and felt a turbulent flow from his companion as well. They both glanced at each other. "It's a rip," Hakkai said. "I must have just wandered through at the wrong time."

"I'll close this side," Byakuya said. "Do you have..."

Hakkai nodded. "I think I'll be able to close my side." He started walking towards the tree.

"Cho Hakkai," Byakuya called, quietly. Hakkai turned to look at him. "I'm afraid I'll have to erase your memories of this time, but..." He tilted his head a little. "If you like, I can leave an after-death memory that you have a standing invitation to practice the way of tea with me when you do come back."

Hakkai smiled his gentle smile. "I do not intend to come back, as I don't think I would be forgiven; but, if you are that patient, I would be honored."

Byakuya nodded. "Then it will be so."

They bowed, noble to commoner, and Hakkai's bow was deep to the proper degree. He turned and walked through the rip, used his chi powers to close it behind him, and then dropped to his knees, wondering why he was so drained by simply having walked under an oak tree.

In the distance he heard, "But I'm HUNGRY, Sanzo!! Where did Hakkai go? He said he was going to make dinner!!"

Hakkai had to grin. Drained or not, he was needed, and that was enough.


	2. Spring Tea with Tenpou 1 of 2

_A/N: The guys never got their tea that time, so I kept getting haunted by Tenpou wanting his tea. Iron Dog/2Metaldog gave me the prompt for the first, so this is for her, and I've borrowed some of her __Beautifully Broken Evolution history as the back story for this, with her permission. Plus, I also borrowed her habit of writing in the first person. I haven't done that very often. Tell me if it worked?_

_

* * *

_

When I died it was a spectacularly uneventful death, especially given all that I had gone through to get there.

At eighty-eight years of life, after lunch and a game of mah-jong with the other three who had traveled with me for so long, I died while taking my afternoon nap.

A matron who had known us the last two decades said, "Cho Hakkai must have had really good karma to go that way."

Gojyo splattered her thoroughly with beer, because he was drinking when she said it.

That was worth staying to see.

It was also worth seeing the funeral, as the three of them burnt paper offerings; and, perhaps by habit or perhaps because they remembered our past lives, they offered up all my travel gear. I thanked the Merciful Goddess when Hakuryuu stole a pack of cigarettes each from Sanzo and Gojyo and threw them on the fire as well. He had always remembered.

There were two different strands tugging on my soul. One I remembered from the other times, the links that pulled me back to the Emperor's Heaven, crystalline and singing pure. The other was less familiar. I rolled up my left sleeve to find script characters twining down my now smooth and strong arm. The script ended in a thin line that pulled me to the East.

Script calligraphy has very strict rules as to how the characters should be written. Whomever had written it had bent those rules with interesting results.

On the surface it read: "Invitation to chakai with Kuchiki Byakuya Taichou, at his convenience. Give this person entrance."

But the word 'invitation' had nuances of "requested" that suggested "feelings" on silk with an asking mouth that might have also implied asking divinations of ancestors. The word _chakai _had the tea character twisted towards many plants and flowers more than just the tea itself. The character _taichou_ was written with the older formal character for Captain, including the forms for a high table and death: that intrigued me. Finally, the gate of the word "entrance" flowed into an open mouth which could also suggest a polite request.

Seeing that script, I remembered autumn leaves falling in the forest and the slender man whose immense power made breathing a labor.

Tea. He had promised me tea. I could take the time, this time. Their lives were not at stake, and I didn't think the notoriously slow Will of Heaven would care about one freed soul if I kept my head down.

I pushed back my shaggy dark hair, adjusted my glasses on my nose, settled the pack on my back, lit a smoke from my funeral pyre, and followed the strand twisting away to the East.

* * *

I stepped into a harsh early spring. The air held the first traces of the heady scent of sakura. The other trees were still nothing but black branches against the sky. I recognized the oak from last time, this time as bare as its brethren, with buds beginning to grow on branch tips. Snow lay in shadows, and the wind was still bitter with cold.

This was much better than the endless, unchanging perfection of the Emperor's Heaven I thought, as I stubbed out my smoke in a snow bank and tucked the butt in a pocket. I shivered though, dug the heavy-duty tunic from my pack, and took off my lab coat to put the tunic on underneath.

That's when I discovered the katana in my belt, its plainly wrapped hilt as hauntingly familiar as...

_Tenpou, it is good to be in your hands again._

I closed my eyes at her tone, old pain flared to joy for an instant before burning down to understanding. _Kanaan, I thought I'd lost you forever._

The laughter was rich, heartfelt. _Never, Field Marshal, I will always be yours. You simply misplaced me for a bit._ Rage flooded through me, and memories of castle steps running with still-hot blood. _Now, whom shall we kill?_

_Was a thousand souls not enough for you, sweet?_

_Ha. That was a good workout, Tenpou. The tower stairs in Heaven were better._

That was when I heard someone running across the dead leaves of the forest. They were foundering, gasping for breath, and I was surprised to feel their fear as they approached. I narrowed my eyes, and stayed behind a tree as I looked around to assess what was happening.

It was a girl, dark-haired and dark-eyed, dressed in traditional Islands of the Rising Sun robes, a white under-robe with wide red pants, now ripped and ragged at the knees and hem. Blood fell from a slash on her face, a burn on her back, a cut through her arm. She was carrying a sword in a sheath at her sash, and she had her one good hand on it as she ran, keeping it from tangling with her legs and feet.

A stench flooded in, or that's how I took it at first and then realized that it was an amalgam of emotions: hunger, lust, self-hatred, and a deep-seated pain of loss that ate away at my composure like acid. Trees snapped like matchsticks as bone-white mandibles scythed their way through them. The spread of just the legs we could see was larger than that of a house.

_That looks tasty,_ Kanaan murmured.

_Indeed._

I automatically fingered the rim of my ear and was amused to find the limiters there, all three of them. I wondered if Hakkai's youkai nature was now a part of my soul, we'd lived long enough with it.

The shadow that fell upon us swallowed half the sky. I let the girl run past me. She didn't even notice me in the shadows of the trees. I assessed the various joints that were suddenly offered. I noted the mask of bone up on that head with silk-soft blond hair behind it.

I drew my sword and said, "Kanaan, scream."

The sword screamed a siren call of hatred and blazed arterial blood-red.

The monster before me halted. The girl collapsed behind me, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

I leapt: up the ankle, back of the calf, to the knee. A huge beam of a leg swiped at us. I laughed and swung, and the leg parted from its host. It screamed, a huge sound, and wind that blew back my hair, making it all the easier to see our ultimate target. But suddenly the black mouth fired chittering insects at me.

I swung Kanaan at them, and the bug parted neatly, but then exploded so hard that it threw us out of the air even as more blasts burned clothing and stung skin.

I tumbled, was hit by another beam of a leg. In mid-flight towards another tree-thick limb, I brought my chi shield up. The barrier cushioned the next blow so that I didn't go flying like a ping pong ball, instead we dropped directly to the earth. More of the insects splattered against the barrier before exploding again. The barrier kept the blasts away from us; but it would be harder for me to do something offensive...

_Ha. _she said, a quick reminder that I wasn't just Cho Hakkai anymore.

I threw Kanaan at the mask with all my considerable strength. Exploding insects converged on the blazing comet she made.

I leaped after her, more easily dodging the things when they were intent on her; and even as the explosions knocked her from her path, I arrived at the mask. I took the ball of chi I held in my hands and slapped it against the cold bone. The blast cracked it as if it were no more than a crust for one of Goku's favorite pies.

The mask fell away, and I was startled to find the face of a beautiful woman underneath, blond hair floating in a ghost breeze about her agonized features. Then a cold blast of sakura scented air swirled about us both and Kuchiki Byakuya appeared.

"Idiot, you need your zanpakutou to cleanse her," was all the greeting he gave.

He drew his sword and startled me by laying the butt of it against the woman's forehead. She sighed and her immense body crumbled to dust. We both landed on our feet on the soft forest floor.

He snapped, "That is taught even in First Year. Why did you throw it away?"

That was when he actually turned to see me, and he instantly moved to ready stance against me.

I dove for Kanaan, and rolled up into a ready stance as well.

Obviously he didn't recognize me; but he shifted, moving his front shoulder forward, the angle of blade just a hand-span back, and his back foot moved four inches to the front. It was a faster attack angle and if he believed he could hit me from there with a four inch change, his distance would be impressive.

I shifted my weight forward, and dropped my blade to my right side. That made it easier for me to move back at the first swing if need be; but also gave me the distance to better judge the power of his attack. Clearing my line of sight might allow me a stop hit before he finished a traditional swing.

If that failed then I'd have the room to dodge the first attack, and that should clear the way for another two-stroke exchange that would allow me to learn more of his abilities. From there the tree branches of possibilities unfurled in my mind to the sixth and even seventh move, but a good deal of it was fuzzy from not knowing his exact abilities. He wouldn't have the same problem with me, after having seen me attack the monster.

His eyes narrowed. Intriguing. He looked too young to have such tactical depth, but then, I suddenly realized, so did I.

I smiled and took two full steps back. I sheathed Kanaan and moved her to my right side. She grumbled in the back of my head, but it wasn't as if I couldn't draw her even from the off side with the time the extra distance between us bought me. I showed him the arm that was covered in script.

"I believe that I was invited, Kuchiki-taichou," I said politely.

He frowned, eyes still narrowed. "What are you? You are no shinigami, but you have power."

"I told you before that I was not human, Captain."

"Before?"

"Please look at my arm. I'm unarmed."

"Lace your hands together before you."

"Only if you sheath your blade."

An eyebrow rose. "You presume with your tone of address."

I sighed. "I am from the Central Lands, not a native speaker of your tongue. I meant no disrespect."

Kanaan giggled in the back of my head, _You simply do not give him the respect he thinks he deserves._

_Hush._

He slowly sheathed his blade.

I laced my fingers together and held my hands out before me.

Kuchiki Byakuya came forward, without any of the caution I expected. He came in close, frowned and then, without any warning, put his guard-covered hands on me, and moved my arm so that he could see his writing on my skin more clearly.

His hands were warm.

I shivered.

"Are you cold, Cho Hakkai?" he asked, even as he continued to study my skin.

"Yes. But, I'm not entirely sure that name is appropriate anymore."

"Oh? Have you remembered previous lives?"

"Mmm... somewhat, but mostly my time as the previous Field Marshal of Heaven," I said softly.

He dropped my arm abruptly at that. "That is why you have already achieved shikai."

"I... what?" I asked and then shook my head as he opened his mouth to answer. "It doesn't really matter. I've resigned the post with a vengeance. No need to stand on formalities, Captain. I really am just here for the tea."

I admired the fact that he took a moment to absorb that, but readily did.

Then he asked, "What shall I call you?"

I thought a moment. The post was gone. I had no reason to even put on a mask of being pure anymore, what Hakkai had represented was no longer needed. Gonou was long dead, the Cho family not really a connection to anything I could now lose. "Please call me Tenpou. It will do for now."

That eyebrow went up again. "Tenpou, I am pleased to meet you, and with a name like that I am sure you will excuse me to take care of my subordinate before we make our tea."

"Certainly. May I help?"

He chuckled. "Can you see this?"

In a burst of chi, he appeared five yards to my right. I studied the energy signature of that trick. Then I nodded, concentrated on what I'd seen, shaped my chi, and let it go.

I stood next to my clothing and pack.

He nodded as he scooped up the girl. "Follow as you can. I do not expect you to keep up with me."

I had to laugh at that, as I pushed the heavy tunic back into the bag and slipped on my lab coat before the pack.

"No," I said softly, "you wouldn't."

I kept up.

We appeared in a complex of compounds, with people everywhere: people that shot us surprised looks as we flashed through them, people that suddenly tasted of ice or snow, rain or sea, moonlight or blazing sun, fire and black iron. I was breathless with this new sense by the time we stopped at the building with the number four in a placard over the doorway.

"Do you feel everyone's powers, too?" I asked, drinking in this new facility to read people's souls along with a general indicator of their feelings.

"Of course," he said shortly, paused before the doorway.

I opened the door for him and his burden. The woman at the desk shouted for orderlies, and soon there was the familiar rush of people at an infirmary. The odd thing was that all of them stopped just eight feet from us. Byakuya huffed an impatient breath, put the girl on a stretcher, and then not only backed up but pulled me with him. As soon as we were some distance from the stretcher, everyone crowded in to help her.

It took me a moment, but then I remembered how hard Hakkai had found it to simply breathe in this man's presence. His power must be evident to everyone that was here; interesting. Mine as well, I guessed, since he had pulled me back.

"What do I feel like to you?" I murmured under the noise of all the activity.

"The stench of old blood and countless battles, each edged with loss, but redeemed by a purer purpose."

I blinked. "How can someone feel that way?"

He shrugged. "I do not know. You simply do."

He watched quietly as they wheeled his subordinate away, and a woman with long hair braided before her came up and said, "She is not badly hurt, taichou. She should be ready for duty within a day or two."

"Thank you." The nobleman bowed, and the woman bowed back. Her chi felt calm, as restful as the shade under a tree.

She looked kindly at me. "Thank you, for the girl you saved told me that you'd rescued her from the Hollow. We are in your debt..."

She bowed and I, awkwardly caught between my old irony about such things and Hakkai's reflexes, bowed back. "It was an interesting fight," I said quietly. "I was glad for the Captain's assistance in the battle."

Her eyes widened a moment and then she laughed. "I am glad to have helped."

I was taken aback. "Oh. I meant him..." I glanced in the direction of Byakuya, and then considered the woman. "Fascinating, you are a Captain as well?"

She didn't roll her eyes at me, she was far too well-mannered. "Indeed. You do not have female Captains where you come from? I hear that that is common in many parts of the world."

"No, I haven't met many female Captains, only goddesses that are far, far more powerful than I'd ever fear to be."

Her eyebrow moved up fractionally, and then she simply nodded and bowed to me. I bowed back again and she turned back to her infirmary.

I sighed.

Kuchiki tilted his head and surprised me by saying, "You did well."

Together we turned back along the path we'd blinked along so quickly before. The infirmary was within a white city with walls, buildings to all sides, and as we traveled out of the city there larger houses on even greater amounts of land until we were walking through the spring-scented woods along side a meandering stream with shards of ice glinting along its banks.

"Do you have monsters attacking in the wealthiest parts of town frequently?" I asked.

"No."

We kept walking and I waited a bit for something more from the cool captain, but we turned up one of the paths toward one of the larger family compounds. It was ringed in a fence, and the black wood gate loomed as we walked up to it. The captain opened all 20 feet of solid hard wood easily, and then stepped within.

I didn't hesitate too long. There was no reason for him to kill me, yet, and I was still drawn by the promise of a true tea ceremony, since I'd never experienced that before. He nodded as I stepped in and closed the gate behind me.

We took our shoes off in the entry way to the largest building in the compound. There was a huge kitchen, to the back, with stoves and ovens still fired with charcoal, as a boy as black as the buckets shoveled chunks into the glowing maw.

Byakuya walked up to the woman who was orchestrating the steaming industry within, and said, "Two _cha-kaiseki_ meals."

She bowed and then turned to bark some orders.

I expected that to be it, but, instead, he beckoned to me and we walked down a hallway. He opened a door to a neat little modern bath room. The whole floor was tiled, and there was an already steaming-hot filled bath.

I looked at him.

He looked into the room.

I sighed. "Must I...?"

Byakuya nodded. "It is part of the purification for the ceremony. I shall do so as well, before we leave this place. There is a change of formal clothing already in the room. I shall meet you afterward."

Well, it was better than the time Kenren threw me into the Goddess' pond. Hakkai had more socially acceptable habits than I ever had, the Orphanage had beaten that into him, and he'd had Kanaan to please. There was a small sniff in the back of my head.

This wasn't going to be nearly as cold.

"Is it okay if I smoke?"

A barely suppressed eye roll preceded the clipped words. "Yes, if you only do it in here." He snapped on a switch and there was the quiet hum of a fan.

Twenty minutes later, as I settled in the scalding hot water, put a towel over my eyes, and took a long, slow drag. I had to admit that it felt very good, especially after the cold and damp of the spring day.

An hour later, I was rethinking my earlier assessment, as I puzzled over which of the formal kimono layers went over which, and when it was that I was supposed to tie on the damned obi as well as how to tie it. I had some inkling that there were probably dozens of methods and some of them appropriate for spring but many of them not. The Imperial Court dress was like that as well, designed to be a cause for ridicule for those that didn't slavishly follow the latest trends as well as for the more practical purpose of preventing assassination attempts.

Finally, I gave up. I opened the door a crack to a muffled squeak of surprise from a woman who was waiting, sitting seiza out in the hallway.

I tossed out the strip of fabric I took to be a wrapper for my private parts and said mildly, "I will not wear whatever this is. Get me some proper underwear and someone that can come in here to help me with the ordering of these layers."

She fled.

A few minutes later, the door slid wide open and Byakuya walked into the room.

He paused, looked me up and down, and took his time to study what he saw. He had been freshly bathed as well, his hair still damp, but neatly restrained by the _kenseikan_. He wore what looked to me like formal kimono in soft grays, no longer the black and white uniform with the numbered jacket I'd seen him in earlier. The sheer scarf he'd worn before was wrapped with a carelessness that must have taken practice and time to achieve. He held my rejected strip of cloth in one hand and did not have anything else in the other.

"Are you here to put that on me?" I asked, dubiously.

"Indeed. It is far more comfortable and modest with kimono than modern wear, and if it is simply your ignorance that stands in the way, I am glad to assist."

His tone was dry, nearly clinical. But something... smelled, tasted... oh, it was my new senses that were telling me that not everything was quite as it seemed. I stood up and walked over to him, not sauntering as Kenren might, but I watched him quietly as he draped one end over my shoulder and down my front only to pass the cloth between my legs and then he started twisting, wrapping, and adjusting.

He worked smoothly, but laid cool fingertips on my hip, stroked where the twisted cloth lay against my stomach; and when he took the rest of the cloth to make the second layer of the loin cloth itself, I just closed my eyes, as his hands firmly adjusted the tension of the cloth and tucked the end in at my waist.

"Comfortable?" he asked.

I walked around, not quite used to the feel of it, but it did not bind and it didn't seem inclined to fall off. "Yes," I said.

"Good. Then put these on." He handed me two kimono, and when I put the first one on, he made a pained sound.

"The other one. You never put that color over the other for a spring tea ceremony."

I put the other one on, and before I even reached for the second, he came up close and put a clip at the neckline that held it closed. Then he held out the second one for me and helped me situate the sleeves and fold the front. He didn't even let me touch the obi, instead, wrapping it about me and expertly folding and tucking and tying the ends.

I watched his hands, fascinated.

He slung a jacket-like coat over the kimono, tucked the sleeves in for that as well, and then did something to the ties for the over coat that made me tilt my head a bit. I peered down at the intricate knot.

"Beautiful," I said, studying the weave of it.

He took two steps back to look at me and nodded. "You are," he said thoughtfully.

I raised an eyebrow.

He only inclined his head and slid open the door.

A little amused with my disappointment at his opening of the door, I exited, and then waited for my host to lead the way. The kimono made walking harder. They restrained my steps to a certain length, and when I looked at Kuchiki-taichou, he was taking the smaller, measured steps without any hurry.

When we arrived at the front door, there were two carefully wrapped boxes sitting next to our shoes. After putting on our shoes, we each picked up our burdens and walked out into his garden.

_TBC_


	3. Spring Tea with Tenpou 2 of 2

It wasn't hard to slow down. After decades of old age in a slowing body, it was easy to be patient. I took the time to smell enticing aromas coming off the box in my hold, to feel the smooth play of muscles and tendons that no longer protested mere use, to take in the new spring scent of dampness and new green, and to listen to the mountain breathe in the gusts of wind through the trees.

The chatter of water over rocks warned me that we were nearing the tea house. The maples were bare now, the chrysanthemum and asters nothing but bare branches and sodden reeds with just a hint of green at the base. White heads of narcissus and green blades and purple blossoms of irises had risen from the earth and were starting to bloom. The stones of the stream were bright, the edges in the shadows still locked in crystalline ice.

The tiny tea house under the trees was built from logs that had simply had the bark stripped off them. They'd been put together so perfectly they nearly seemed to have been grown that way, and the floor was planed smooth so that one could see the grain on each piece of wood. The paper for the walls was thick and sturdy, the screens solid.

The bench by the stream looked as if it had been there since the beginning of time, the driftwood shone silver, and the _tsukubai _stood solid by it, the mosses and lichens even thicker on the squatting stone. The water in the naturally worn basin at the top of the stone pillar was clear and mirror still. It was also completely empty of stones, plants, and other living things. I studied that for a moment.

Byakuya held out a hand. "Your burden," he said quietly.

I handed it over, and he nodded at the bench. "Sit a moment, enjoy the surroundings while I prepare."

So I sat.

At first, I watched the water, fascinated by the flow amid the ice and stone. The silence was only accented by the sigh of the wind or the fall of the water, and unmarred by the sound of voices or machinery. Gradually, I realized just how rare real silence was. I straightened my back, took a slow, deep breath of the sharp spring air, and sank all my senses into that which was all around me, the damp coolness of the bench I sat upon, the feeling of the cloth and the wind against my skin, the pockets and pools of scent: the sharp bright aggressive heat of the narcissus, the cool scent of water, and then, lasting surprising long, was the rich complexity of sakura.

A gentle touch stroked along my shoulder informed me as to why the scent had stayed when all the others had blown by.

"All is ready, Tenpou. Please feel free to call me Byakuya, all manners of rank are suspended for the duration of the ceremony. I shall assume that you still know nothing of the ceremony and instruct you as I am able."

I chuckled. "That would be wise."

I stood up and gave him a bow. "Please, Byakuya, forgive me all the mistakes I'm about to commit."

A new moon of a smile briefly touched the corners of his eyes as he returned my bow to exactly the same level. Then he turned to the basin I'd been studying, and dipped water from it with from a roughly made dipper. I held out my hands, and he poured the water over them, into the stream. I rubbed my hands under the cold stream of water.

"Rinse your mouth and spit the water out as well," Byakuya said patiently. "It is a simple cleansing ritual to remove all impurities before entering."

I cupped my hands, brought the water to my mouth, and the cold water surprised me with its sweetness. I nearly swallowed, and then remembered his instructions. I swished the water about and then spat it into the bank of the stream.

He handed me a towel and I dried off.

"If only it really were this simple," I said musingly.

"There have been times I have thought the same, but I indulge and imagine, for a little while, that my past does not matter beyond that moment."

When he handed the dipper to me, I realized that the handle had once been a branch of a tree, and the cup was carved from what must have been the knot of where it had attached to the tree. I used it to pour water over his hands and then into them as well. His motions, as he cleaned his mouth and hands, were practiced, precise, and when I handed the towel back he nodded his thanks.

I was intrigued by what he'd said, that a death god could be haunted by his own past was not quite what I'd expected.

We walked to the little tea house, took off our shoes, and bowed as we entered, ducking under the curtains strung over the door. It was a four and a half mat room, and the square half mat in the center of the room had been cut out to allow a hearth in one corner. The room was still cold. There was an alcove to the side, and in it was a painting.

It surprised me as well. There were no plum or cherry blossoms in the painting, as is typical for Chinese spring themed paintings. Instead, there was the graceful new green of willow branches in just springing forth from bud, flowing from left to right in an unseen wind. Under and amid the branches were sparrows. Three birds were on the ground, as two flew through branches. The first was a female flying high and oblivious to the second, which was male. The second bird tracked the first with his visible eye. The painter had somehow managed to convey soaring carelessness in the bird nearing the sky and a dogged determination in the little one following her.

Poetry flowed down the side of the scroll.

_"And what is the pain of being separated from those one loves or likes?__  
Not being able to meet, remain with, be in close contact, or intermingle__  
With sights, sounds, odors, tastes, tactile objects, and souls/breaths in this world  
Which are desirable, pleasant or enjoyable,  
Or with mother or father or brothers or sisters or friends or companions or maternal and paternal relatives  
Who desire one's advantage, benefit, comfort or freedom from danger._

_This is called the pain of being separated from those one loves or likes."_

Scripture. Buddhist scripture. I studied this piece of the Mahasatipatthana Sutra as one might study a snake that hadn't shown its fangs. Then I studied the calligraphy quietly and realized it must have been written by Byakuya, as the form and flow were much the same as what was on my arm. That he had chosen just this passage out of the whole made me think.

Kanaan's presence murmured and shifted in the back of my head.

"A mildly unusual subject," I commented, "but beautifully rendered."

"Thank you."

"What is the painting an expression of?" I asked, curious.

"What do you find in it?"

"Attachment," I said. "With all that that brings."

The perfectly chiseled lips turned up just a bit at the corners. "Indeed. That speaks a little of where you come from as well. Whom do you see?"

"Whom?" I was puzzled for a moment, and then laughed softly. "Ah. Yes. I see Kanaan, my sister and wife and newly realized weapon, my companions on the road, before and after, and the tree above the uncaring ever springing growth of Heaven. And you, whom have you lost?"

"My wife," he said shortly and stilled, fingertips reaching out to lightly trace the air over the willow branches. "I had not thought of the tree that way, but I now concur. They were your companions before and after what?"

"My rebellion against Heaven."

The pewter bright eyes met mine.

"Excuse me," I continued abashed. "It really wasn't just my rebellion. There were four of us, and we lost."

He shook his head a little as he went over to kneel by the hearth. "Four of you, against all of Heaven? No wonder you lost. It is cold in here, and I would remedy that. Pull out the iron pot?"

I moved over to the hearth and used the handle to pick up the big cast iron kettle with hobnail finish and a dragon coiled sleepily about the open, circular mouth of the nearly spherical pot. It set on the hearth and was surprisingly heavy. I lifted it carefully out and was surprised when nothing shifted in its weight. Between the slippery new tatami mats and the kimono, I wasn't too sure of my movements, but I managed to keep my balance as I placed the empty kettle to the side.

Byakuya lit the fire, and leaned close to use a painted fan to blow on the flames until they caught. His motions were precise. The fire lit his fine features with a glow that warmed the alabaster of his skin.

"Do you rebel, too?" I asked quietly.

"Tch," was all he said, as he fanned the flames further. Warmth seeped into the tiny room from the lit fire, and the flames spread to the whole of the hearth. Byakuya placed a grating over the fire.

"Put it back on."

I carefully lowered the kettle back onto the hearth, and when relieved of its weight I stretched my shoulders to loosen them. That's when I realized Byakuya was watching me.

He cocked his head. "I had not anticipated how pleasurable it would be to have a guest who had no particular expectations of how I might do this. Thank you for your help."

"Certainly," I said, a little surprised. "Are guests not supposed to help with preparations?"

"Indeed not."

"Well, it seems silly to make me just sit there and watch you do everything."

His lips pursed in thought. "Indeed," was all he said, but there was amusement underlying the one word, and I realized that this might actually be his answer. To defy the traditions of the tea ceremony itself seemed such a small rebellion, but perhaps he had much to rebel against to get even this far.

The fire was now pouring out heat, making the tiny room far more comfortable. I relaxed and knelt before the edge of the central mat, opposite Byakuya. He picked up something between his fingers and then carefully placed it among the hot coals, and the room gradually filled with a creamy sweet scent. I closed my eyes and breathed it in quietly.

For all that Byakuya had put up a theme about the pains of being attached to existence; he was putting up a pretty good argument for the beauty and pleasure of existing. Was the so-controlled exterior simply a cover for something boiling below the surface? I shook my head, and opened my eyes only to see him watching me. How much could he now sense of what I was feeling?

He unpacked more layers of the boxes we'd brought, and we each took one of the trays where small dishes had been carefully placed. The chopsticks were of fresh cedar, fragrant and brilliantly colored red. The dishes included a bowl of white rice, stickier and shorter grained than the type I was used to, a small dish of shredded daikon radish smelling of vinegar and spices, probably pickled, and a covered lacquer bowl.

The bowl proved to contain a simple, clear broth.

"Would you like sake?"

I blinked in surprise. "Isn't this supposed to be a tea ceremony?" I asked, curiously.

"Yes. But we first have the meal, which can include the comfort of sake, do a little more art contemplation, and then finish with the tea."

"Oh. That seems very complicated," I said. When he chuckled I added, "When I do our tea ritual, it's just tea preparation, simply practicing a method for creating the best tea the leaves can give and sharing that with someone. Not that I'm complaining about the meal. I rather like the simplicity of it."

"But all we've had is the basic beginnings, not the meal, yet," he said and, for the first time since I'd seen him, he actually smiled.

"There's more?" I asked, incredulous.

"Three... no four more courses, and that doesn't count the sweets for the last round of tea, either. Would you like to serve the sake and the next course?"

I laughed and set down my chopsticks and bowl. "Certainly. Tell me how?"

"First, place the sake by the fire to warm, and then look in the next layer in the box to the right."

An earthenware jug proved to smell alcoholic, so I set that by the hearth, and went to find the box indicated and get the top layer out. In some ways it made me feel a bit like when I was serving Sanzo, Gojyo, and Goku, giving them the food and drink that they needed when we were out camping. There were two of each of a covered bowl, a covered dish, and a plate holding a grilled anchovy.

So I simply moved one of each onto our trays.

"That will do. Is the sake nearly warmed?"

I touched the side of the sake bottle that faced away from the fire; it felt just barely warm to the touch. "It's getting there."

"Then we should drink the clear soup to cleanse our palates for the sake."

"All right."

I drank the soup and tasted hints of dried fish and seaweed, salt and light. It was quite good, and I finished it slowly, savoring the simplicity of it.

Byakuya's eyes were closed when he finished his within moments of me. He took a slow breath and something in his stiff demeanor seemed to melt, relax. When he opened his eyes, he nodded quietly at me, and then reached to touch the sake bottle as well. He nodded at what he felt and brought out two wooden rice measuring boxes, and remembering something I'd heard, I gripped the warm neck of the bottle and poured until they were nearly full.

When I put the bottle down, Byakuya picked it up again and poured until both boxes overflowed.

"Full measure," he stated. "My hospitality shall not be found wanting. Kanpai."

"Kanpai."

We drank. It wasn't quite as hot as I expected it to be, instead it was pleasantly warm, and the first thing that hit was a nearly overwhelming raw alcohol taste; but the aftermath smoothed out and mellowed, sweetened until I tasted fruit and herbal tones. I sighed and took another sip and the initial alcohol hit wasn't nearly as hard, but the finish was even better.

"Oh, that is good," I said quietly.

Byakuya chuckled and said quietly, "It is not the best in my cellar, but I enjoy it anyway."

"Oh, I'm sure the best would have been wasted on me, as I am enjoying this a great deal, indeed. I am glad to not be intimidated by the quality of what you've chosen for me."

He bowed his head in acknowledgement.

"Now the food."

I opened the new bowl to find another soup, but this with small clams and what looked like wild parsley. I'd used the plant enough times on our Journey to recognize the distinctive leaf. The covered dish held fresh bamboo shoots simmered with seaweed, also decorated with a bright green leaf that I didn't recognize. The grilled fish was graced with what looked like a tiny new leaf from a plum tree.

I sipped the soup when I saw Byakuya begin his. The hot broth was beautifully layered with flavors, and the clams within were juicy, tender, and firm to the bite. Byakuya dipped into all the food, and he took little notice of me. I was suddenly very hungry and I simply ate as I pleased.

The fish was crisp along the edges, the meat sweet and tender, and the innards were bitter and made a pleasing contrast. The bamboo shoots had been cooked just enough to make them tender, but not so much that they'd lost their bite, and was made more interesting with the soft texture of the reconstituted seaweed. The sake, on further sips, seemed to open up and mellow out, buttery smooth and warming.

I sighed happily. "This is beautifully prepared; each in balance with the others, and simple enough to bring out the flavors of each item so that the quality comes through so clearly. It's uncluttered."

Byakuya nodded, "Ayume does respect her food. I rarely fault her preparations any more, even when she complains about the lack of challenge in my tastes."

"I am glad of your tastes if this is what you prefer."

He nodded a little stiffly.

When we were done, Byakuya reached back into the bundles and came out with a very small lacquered box. He opened the lid and lifted out a single pink rolled pancake, wrapped in a wilted leaf, topped with a single cherry blossom which was the distinct pink of cherry instead of the hues of a plum.

He set the tiny confection before me, and then reached back in to pull one out for himself as well.

He brought it up to his mouth and bit, so I did as well. The leaf was salty, the pancake was sweet and tender, and the insides were filled with sweetened adzuki bean paste, creamy and mealy in one. I chewed the leaf, as it was far tougher than any other part of the confection, but then took the rest of it in one last bite.

Byakuya sighed a contented sigh.

"This makes you happy?" I asked, innocently enough.

He stiffened.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I did not mean to take away your enjoyment by calling attention to it."

He gave a wry grin. "Apology accepted."

There was a pause and then Byakuya said quietly, "Indeed. I do enjoy this, especially with someone as undemanding as you are. You are enjoying this, are you not?"

"I am, very much. The tastes, textures, setting, and subjects of study have been intriguing."

"Subjects?"

I laughed. "You, the painting, the house itself, the elements of the meal, have all been gracious, attentive, and delicious."

"And you have no issues with the missing courses, the slovenly service, or the lack of the salt from the northern shores on the fish?"

I couldn't quite tell if the question was serious or not; Byakuya's fine features divulged not a thing, but then I took a breath and felt something like an underground runnel of humor. "None, whatsoever. Is there really a requirement for where the salt is from?"

"Indeed. At least my teacher insisted on it." The chuckle went unheard, but I felt it anyway. I could get used to this new power, especially with this man who seemed to say so little of what he was actually feeling.

He took a deep, slow breath and picked up his tray, and brought it over to the boxes. I brought mine as well. It seemed to startle him a little that I had done so, but he recovered easily and took it from me to slide into the container.

From the box, he brought out a stand, polished and shining, and set it up on the central tatami, next to the hearth. Before it he placed a stoneware jar of water. Next he carefully lifted out a slender vase, again hand-shaped, with a roughly textured brown glaze mottled on the raised surface of the vessel. In it was a single iris, one bud opened in its bright display, the other bud still tightly closed, and two blade-like leaves springing forth as well. He placed the vase at the foot of the painting and reached up to take the painting down.

"Can we leave the painting up?" I asked.

Byakuya looked at me and then nodded, leaving the painting up; but gently touching the flower so that it faced outward while its bud companion stayed discreetly to the back.

He came back to the hearth, and laid out on the presentation stand a whisk, a rough linen cloth, a scoop, the water ladle we'd used earlier, a bowl, a fine silk cloth, a shallow larger bowl, and a small frame of green bamboo. He removed the lid from the kettle and placed the lid on the small frame of bamboo. He then hefted the earthenware jug to pour water into the kettle already on the hearth. It hissed furiously as the water hit the hot metal. He set the jar back in its place.

He used both hands to pick the earthenware tea bowl up to hand it to me, so I used both hands to receive it and was glad when it was heavier than I expected. The rough outer surface was contrasted by a creamy smooth interior. The exterior had patches of red and a deep glossy black in stacked, ragged pieces. It was just barely round, with irregularities in the shape and height, but wide and tall enough to fill my hands. The edge was rough in some places and smooth in others, as if it had been pieced together instead of thrown on some potter's wheel.

"It feels good to hold," I said as I extended it back to him, keeping both hands on it.

"It is several centuries old," he said quietly. "It was made by Sen no Rikyu for my grandfather."

"I'm sorry, I don't know the name," I said. "But I do find it beautiful."

"Which is what matters," Byakuya said, taking it back in both hands.

He lifted the silk cloth, which I now saw had a pattern of cherry trees in full bloom with thousands of loose petals flying in the wind. Byakuya moved his sleeves out of the way, and positioned himself so that I could see every motion he made with the silk to clean the bowl and a slender bamboo scoop. When he finished, something about his intent and the full focus of his attention struck me, and I remained silent, watching.

He folded the cloth with a precision, not just of placement of the cloth, but of motion that struck me as being very much like his actions in the fight with the monster. Exact and focused, it felt not at all odd to compare the motions in a life and death situation with this clarity of purpose in this calmer setting.

The placement of all the tools made more sense, as he ladled now hot water from the kettle into the handmade tea bowl. He rinsed an intricate bamboo whisk through the water with exact strokes, before swirling the water about and dumping it into the larger, shallow bowl. He then measured six scoops of a green powder into the tea bowl and dripped water as he whisked the powder into a paste. The slender teeth of the whisk rang softly against the sides of the bowl, a quiet chiming that was all the more remarkable in the silence that surrounded us. He added more hot water in a thin stream from the ladle, far less than I would have thought for tea, and returned the rest of it to the kettle.

His attention and gaze turned to me. I straightened and when he offered me the bowl, his eyelids dipped just the smallest bit, and cued by that, I bowed as I accepted the bowl into my hands, showing respect for the tea as well as its maker. The tea bowl was now warm to the touch, comforting, and I cupped my hands about it before taking a deep breath of the scent of green leaves from the surface. Given the way the rest of this ceremony had gone, rather than worry about what I should do, I simply did what I needed to concentrate on and enjoy this particular moment.

I took a slow sip of the thick contents. It was surprisingly sweet, the powder so fine that the texture was smooth and just finely edged with enough bitterness to balance the grass and round depth that only tea could lend to the drink. The water temperature had been judged to a fine degree, warm enough to heat the cup and the drink, but not so hot as to sharpen the bitterness that was inherent to green teas. I sighed my approval, and turned the cup in my hand to see and feel all of it before drinking again at the same edge I'd used to start.

When I looked up Byakuya was watching me with the same intent he'd used in making the tea. When I handed the cup back, he used the rougher linen cloth to clean the edge I'd used before he turned the cup to study it. Then he brought it to his own lips. He breathed over the cup as well before drinking the last of the tea in slow swallows.

Then he rinsed the cup, rinsed the whisk and scoop, and dried it all again with the rougher linen cloth.

That was when a crystalline presence burst into existence outside the tea house. He looked at me. "Are you expecting someone?"

I shook my head. "Though I'll admit that I expected to be lost beyond the horizon of what I'd known."

"Ah."

He got up and I followed his lead as he slid open the door to the small cozy retreat. We stepped out into the raw spring day and found two men with long beards and flowing hair dressed in shining scaled armor standing outside.

"Tenpou Gunsui, also known as Zhuge Liang or Cho Gonou, you are hereby under arrest for your crimes of two centuries ago, to be brought back to the Heavenly Kingdom for imprisonment and punishment according to the pleasures of the Jade Emperor."

"By what law is that just?" Byakuya asked thoughtfully.

"It is the law of Heaven," said one of the warriors. "All must be ordered by the Mandate of Heaven for the good of all things under Heaven."

Byakuya cocked his head. "There is no governing body? No voice for those without power? Where is your proof that he has betrayed the common good?"

"Are you defying our authority?" One of them said belligerently.

Byakuya's eyes went wide, even as I felt no surprise from him. Reflex, perhaps, in order to see his field of battle more clearly, and then I saw his hand go to his hilt.

"I simply require answers before I answer to you."

I sighed in resignation.

"The same thing," said one of the warriors in satisfaction, and instead of drawing a non-existent sword, he released his human appearance and burst up and out into his demonic aspect. The other turned into one of the Heavenly lions, with flame for breath and hail for wings.

I pulled my limiters off even as I heard the beautiful Captain say, "Bankai."

They didn't have a chance.

When it was over their bodies rained silver and fire up into the sky before disappearing completely.

"They'll be back," I said quietly.

"Let them," he said shortly, as he cleaned his sword with the same intent and control he'd used to clean the ancient tea bowl.

I shook my head. "No, you don't get it, they won't stop until they think I'm dead or incarnated, which is the same to them."

He looked at me. "What are you asking me to do?"

"Send me on," I said quietly.

"Right now?" he asked, eyes widening just a little. "Admittedly, the flow to this ceremony has been broken, but I had hoped..."

I took five breaths before I asked, "Hoped what?"

"I had hoped that you would show me your tea preparation methods as well."

I couldn't help it. I laughed and laughed hard enough I had to lean on Kanaan.

"Ah, overthrowing the Will of Heaven for a few cups of tea, I could support that wholeheartedly," I said, as I finally caught my breath again. "And I expect you know a more comfortable way to get back on the Wheel of Reincarnation than a sword through the neck?"

"Yes, indeed, with all the attendant paperwork," he said dryly.

"Well, the first three waves shouldn't be any harder than that anyway."

"Than those two?"

"Than the paperwork. They'll have to reincorporate and then fill out the forms for this fiasco too, might well slow them down."

"Then we will have some time."

"Yes. A little while at least."

"Good," he turned away from me back to the sliding door of the small tea house. "Then we can finish this ceremony, make some plans; and, perhaps tomorrow, you will make me tea."

A more unlikely rebel I could not have imagined, as I watched Byakuya return into the ancient and beautiful tea room. But I wasn't one to talk. Who would have thought of me as being not just willing but eager to kill and die for principle?

Okay, principles and a cup of tea.

Suddenly eager to show this Captain what a real cup of tea could taste like, I followed him back into that beautiful little tea house.

* * *

**References**:

"Translation for the Mahasatipatthana Sutta -- Dukkhasacca Pabba" -- as translated by U. Jotika and U. Dhamminda

History and bits and pieces of understanding for the Japanese Tea Ceremony" -- by the ever-helpful Wikipedia

A quick run through of one possible ordering for a tea ceremony quoted by Holy Mountain of William Woodworth's _Tea, Heaven on Earth_

Japanese Spring Recipes by about dot com with seasonal foods, though most of them have to do with Girls' Day. Byakuya still liked the sakura-based sweet...

And, yes. Byakuya broke several parts of the tea ceremony, deliberately; but it wasn't because _he _didn't know what was supposed to happen.


	4. Dance in the Moonlight

_**Notes**: This is for mysocalledhell on LJ's Birthday and her prompt included a go on the rating, "Dance in the Moonlight", and she let me indulge in either Tenpou and Byakuya or Urahara and Grimmjow. I guess Tenpou was louder with what he wanted. The funny thing is that this has mixed up with stuff I've learned from the Zanpakutou Arc in Bleach, rereading how Tenpou died in Gaiden, and seeing Byakuya be pretty much the central character in the two big filler arcs in the anime, both Bounto and the Zanpakutou. It's intriguing seeing how much they rely on him, though given how popular he is._

_I've edited this so that there is no completely explicit stuff, so it's more R rated than X or PG. If you want the fully explicit versions you'll have to go to my livejournal (just liralen) or my y!gallery for the full version. I've changed the rating on the whole fic to accommodate this chapter._

_- Liralen Li  
_

* * *

It was my hair tie that undid me.

I had been just fine for the rest of the day after Kuchiki-sama's tea ceremony. We'd finished off a second sipping of a thinner version of the powdered tea, had a few light, sweet snacks, and packed up all his equipment to take back with us to his mansion. I'd changed back into my everyday clothing of jeans, button shirt, tie, and a lab coat; and with nothing specific to do, had gone to the garden to smoke.

I was barefoot indoors, having left my shoes at the front door, and I don't like tabi on wood floors, as much as tradition dictates it. I hate it when my feet slide on the floor. I found my way to the garden in the center. The four hallways of the Kuchiki main building were all built around a central garden with trees, stones, flowers, plants, and a small pond with a bridge. I slid open an inner wall, and sat on the polished wooden walkway under the trees.

The sakura were just beginning to bloom. The dark buds had just begun to open, showing pink and white edges. There was still snow piled in the shade of the north sides of the trees, the building, the walls. The fragrance crept through the winter black branches, and I could close my eyes and pretend the air was filled with the soft, floating petals, the death of the flowers, delicate, and ephemeral, brushed and crushed by the slightest of touches.

My long hair floated in a breeze, brushing against my face, my mouth, and even crept under my glasses, so I reached into one of the lab coat pockets and pulled out my hair tie and had it halfway twisted about my hair when I remembered.

Remembered my bare feet on a wooden floor, the blood splatter across paper walls, dried ramen stacked in the cupboard, empty pockets, and my extra pair of glasses that I never could find. I remembered the feel of the katana grip in my hands, and how beautiful the thread of blood along the opened throat of the solder had seemed to me. The precise storm of cuts I had laid down, destroying most of the Western Army of Heaven, the numbing fire of the cuts they landed on me, and then I flashed to the feeling of my guts bursting from my stomach. I wrapped my arms around myself, knowing the scar was still there. I grinned without humor. Twice, now.

Twice I'd felt my own intestines squirm between my fingers. Everyone dies alone: it's only when someone comes that you live. I remembered Gojyo finding me the second time on the road in the rain, and my grip relaxed a little.

I felt in my pocket. My goddamned pockets. So many in this lab coat, and I pulled out the packet of cigarettes, knocked out a smoke. I found a metal lighter in another, and with a rasp of steel against flint, I had flame.

I pulled the flame into the tube of paper and tobacco and lit the cigarette. I breathed the smoke in deep, and let the clarity and calm it gave me take the shakes away. It was almost like I wanted to commit seppeku the old-fashioned way, blade through the gut... but no one to back me up, each time.

_I was always backing you up. _ Kanaan's soft voice reminded me of soft arms and softer lips all hiding a fate as sharp as cloud-edged steel. I hefted her grip quietly.

I hadn't always been alone. Not always, but I ached with that loneliness of meeting my death again only surrounded by my enemies and my weapon, of knowing that I'd probably have to die again, soon, to make this place safe from invasion by the Armies of Heaven.

"The moon is beautiful tonight."

The low voice startled me. I looked up. The moon hung low by the roof, looking huge and silvery pale.

"It is." I knew it to be a short answer, but I couldn't trust my voice. I sucked another long, slow drag from the cigarette, letting the smoke flow slowly from my lungs to drift into the dark.

I leaned back against the pillar, and the shadow of Kuchiki Byakuya settled beside me. The pale beauty of his face could have rivaled that of the moon.

I knew my Gojun was a jealous lover, but what dragon isn't possessive? They think in terms of keeping things for centuries, but even marriage vows end with death. For an immortal and many-lived dragon, however, death was as impermanent as tissue paper. He'd forgiven me my marriage with Kanaan, as I had been simply mortal, forgetful of previous lives as I should be; and Kanaan had been my other half, completing my soul in a way that I now realized was just a shadow of what could be.

Gojun was not here. None of my companions were here. I was once again alone, as alone as I had been in that mountain castle, surrounded by the thousand dead I had created in my rage, as alone as I had been in that wooden compound in Heaven, sliding on the wetness of my own blood as I'd savored one last cigarette.

I savored the last of this one, letting the calm clarity it gave me flow through me, and I watched those pale features as I stubbed out the last coal and slipped the stub into my pocket.

If I touched this cool noble, it would be with all my memories intact. I hungered for contact. Gojun knew my nature, knew my flaws. I starved for all the good things Byakuya shown me that afternoon, everything from the delicacies of his kitchen to the silken texture of his skin. This close to him, I could sense that there was something under that cool, hard exterior, like the shadow of fish swimming under ice.

I suddenly realized that the hunger, the loneliness of being so different, the pain over losing the people that were closest to me were not just my emotions. They were his as well.

My eyes widened, and they must have caught the moon, as Byakuya turned toward me.

I could see his pupils were blown, as dark as the night sky, edged in pewter gray. He desired me, he wanted me against that yawning loss. I let my longing guide me, touched two fingertips along the edge of his jaw and then down his throat, feeling the steady strength of his pulse. His skin felt as smooth as I had imagined, newly shaven. I leaned in close and breathed in that wild rich hint of sakura.

I hesitated, looking into his eyes. He looked back, glanced down at my lips, closed the gap, and touched his lips to mine, so gently, like the touch of flower petals drifting on a breeze, sweet but warm with life.

I took a shaking breath and kissed him back, trying to meet gentleness with gentleness, but my loneliness, my hunger made me groan. I kissed him far more deeply and roughly than I intended. His mouth parted under mine and I delved deep, his breathing grew as ragged as mine, and his slid fingers up into my hair to pull me closer and kiss me with a hunger that equaled mine.

When the kiss broke we were both breathing heavily, and I looked deeply into his eyes. He didn't flinch away, didn't look down, and met my look evenly.

"Do you want this?" he asked quietly.

I gave an abrupt nod. "Yes. I want you."

The words drew the corner of his lip up and I laughed. I'd made him smile. I kissed him again, my hands sliding along his slenderness, pulling his body close to mine. This time he was the one that moaned a moan that sounded as if it were dragged involuntarily from him. The edged pain of loneliness that had filled the air about us both flared and crisped in the heat of his sudden need. My fingers flew to the fastenings of his kimono and yanking at the formal knot in his obi. He stilled, so I stopped to look at him.

"Here?" he asked. "My bedroom is warmer."

"It is also filled with memories, is it not?" I asked.

His breath caught, his eyes closed for a moment, and suddenly he was on me. Hands brushing away my lab coat, pulling off my tie, working at my shirt beneath until he growled and yanked. Buttons popped and bounced everywhere on the wood, and then his hands were against my skin, trying to stroke everywhere. I laughed softly, and teased away at the knot that had frustrated my every yank. It came loose, silk sliding in a whisper, and I peeled away his hakama before parting the robes underneath.

His fingers were at the fastening of my jeans, and with a sudden burst of reiatsu, the top button came right off.

"You're going to have to get me new clothing after this," I said breathlessly.

He didn't answer, and the zipper for my pants came reluctantly undone. I closed my eyes and could feel that normally hidden runnel of humor running fast and hot now with unheard laughter. His intent as sharp as it had been on the battlefield with the monster. He moved as quickly and decisively in this as he had in the fight. He peeled the stiff denim down and tossed my pants and underwear to the side. He bent, and his silken hair brushed against my already tight belly and then...

"Oh gods!" I cried and arched. I hadn't known he was into men, but between the earlier look and this, I now had no doubt.

Youth has certain characteristics that one forgets when one gets older. "Ku-- Byakuya, if you keep... ngh... that's so good... I'm gonna... oh, gods... Byakuya..."

He read my growing tension, my bewildered surge of sexual need, and moved faster, harder over me. I snapped and came, bucking, crying out, my hands hard against his shoulder.

I lay back dazed, as he kissed along the scar on my belly, moved further up and pausing to nuzzle at cold and desire hardened nipples. I whimpered softly at the sensation, and he sighed as he slid to lie completely over me. His opened silks settling about us like a cloud, even as the hard heat of his body rested against mine. Chest to chest, belly to belly, his arousal nudging hotly against my thigh.

"You're not wearing one of those damned cloth things," I observed sleepily, knowing that the release was loosening my tongue and not giving much of a damn.

He chuckled, "No, I am not."

"You planned this, didn't you?"

Another of those silences and I could feel him studying me. "I had... hoped." That last word sounded so reluctant, that my throat tightened at the thought of how many things this man hadn't allowed himself to hope.

I wrapped my arms around his slender strength, and opened my hands to slide them both down his back, feeling every inch of his smooth, silken skin enveloping hard muscle. His longing and delight at being so deliberately touched wrapped about me. I didn't stop at his narrow waist, instead moving all the way down to caress the hard muscles of his ass, and then pull him closer. He gasped, his aching need flashing high, and he bit off a moan even as he rubbed up against me.

"Maybe it's the moonlight," I said whimsically. "I'm willing. Do you want me? With a present like what you just gave me, I'm willing to give you that." I felt him shudder in my hold, disbelief falling to wonder. "You have oils?"

"Aye," he said softly.

"Good tactical planning," I said with a laugh. "Have you done this to a man before, Kuchiki-sama?"

"Just... call me Byakuya, as you did before" he returned evenly. "I believe we have become intimate enough to use given names, Tenpou. And, yes, I have, though more in my youth than at present."

"Ah," I sighed and lay back, his regard so clear and sharp I could close my eyes and still know how and where he looked at me.

His hands were cool, steady and sure on me, and I head his soft intake of breath, felt the heat of his wonder and desire, as his hands made me twist and moan. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. "I want you, Byakuya, please," I let the hint of begging show amid my thread-bare control. "Now. Before I go again. I want you in me."

He lowered his mouth to mine again and I kissed back. I slid my hand up against his jaw, feeling the pulse hammering in the slim column of his throat, letting myself feel all my need of him, my want of his strength on me. I positioned myself, and cried out even as he moaned, and for just a moment I couldn't breathe, couldn't say a word, my body shuddering, bucking with the pleasure that was echoed back from him. His lips bent to mine, and he kissed me, slow and sweet, tasting the frantic flutter of my gasps.

"A--… all right," I whispered. "Now. You can… ahhh."

He moved, and the rhythm and purpose behind the motions took my breath away. He went on and on and on until I lost all track of everything about me. I finally reached for myself, and at the motion, he moved, slender long fingers under mine. He caught on quickly, pulling and stroking until I could do nothing but keen as my tension built again, stroke after stroke in me and on me.

"Come, beautiful one, come with me," Byakuya murmured, the strain of holding his own release off suddenly clear to my hearing. His need to please me as clear as the fraying of his own control.

My body tightened to the point of snapping, and I arced there for one slice of forever before I broke, shattered, crying out Byakuya's name as my body bucked and heaved around him, and that was when I felt him snap as well, coming silently.

He collapsed on top of me, body still moving, once, twice, thrice, to stop with a shudder. I wrapped my legs, my arms about him, pulling him close, hands stroking his back soothing now instead of urging him on. He sighed against my throat and I slid my fingers into this thick, long hair.

There was something that tasted like the edge of tears in his power, of something contained so long and now cracked like the ice on the spring pond, and I held him, wondering. I felt his lips brush my collarbone, his eyelids rub against my pulse, and while he was still utterly silent, I felt the trickle of tears down my skin. I didn't dare acknowledge it, it was too much like acknowledging his pleasure at the tea. Instead, I just held him, trying to wrap the comfort of my sated desire, my content about him, relaxing into his warm weight upon me.

When he finally sighed again, rubbing his face against my throat to dry off the tears, I had my eyes closed when I felt him draw back to look at me. The feeling of him laughing softly at me was so strong that when his fingertips touched my face, I opened my eyes and saw, clearly, the amusement within his and a care I hadn't realized I wanted until tears stung my eyes as well.

He leaned down over me, smooth lips brushing my ear rim so that I shivered as he breathed, "Thank you."

He pulled from my body, gently, but inevitably. I unbent and sighed, feeling glad, all of a sudden, to be alive. I laughed suddenly at that thought. "I'm dead, aren't I?" I asked. "And here I was thinking that I was so glad to be alive to share this moment with you."

Byakuya looked at me as he sat up, draping some of his robes over my bare skin, the warmth from his body caressing mine. "Alive or dead, we have shared this moment. It may not matter which you are, so long as you are," he said slowly.

I nodded, reaching up to stroke one lock of his long black hair, admiring how the moonlight shone from the glossy strands. "I am glad you invited me, and that I was curious enough to follow your desire. Otherwise I would probably be chained somewhere in the Emperor's Heaven awaiting the judgment I asked for when I was mortal."

Byakuya's eyes narrowed and one hand caught my jaw. "Do you deserve such treatment?"

I met his eyes. "Yes."

He didn't seem surprised at all. That surprised me.

"I killed a lot of people that didn't deserve to die, along with those that did," I said quietly. "I wanted the death, the ending that I thought awaited me, so that I could join those that I had lost." The keen, flickering edge of the rage I'd felt both times came back to life within me, and I felt Kanaan sigh a low sigh. "I was given absolution by the gods, by a priest, and yet... I still can't forgive myself for not having followed them."

"What would be enough for you?" he asked.

I startled at the curiosity within him and the feeling that he was looking for some kind of answer for himself as well. Confronted with the fact that he had lost others as well, I bit my tongue on my answer: _I enjoyed this time with you, but send me on to find them._ I would be a bad example for him.

Instead I asked, "You, do you have someone you wish to avenge?"

He frowned. "No, I do not."

"But you lost someone..."

He nodded. "It was not my fault," he said as if he'd practiced saying it often enough that he could.

I closed my eyes against the pain that still stabbed through his emotions. "Why don't you believe what you say?"

"How can you know that?"

"I don't... I feel..." I opened my eyes to spread my hand over his heart. "You hurt so badly, and I don't understand why I can feel it, why I feel nearly everything you feel."

"She died of an illness, and I nearly killed her sister, my adopted sister, in pursuit of the law as it was given to me by a... rebel, one who had killed my true superiors," he said quietly, and I had to take a deep breath against the agony that ripped through him at that, none of which showed on his face. "I was stopped from doing the will of the rebel by a boy who said that the law be damned, if it would hurt his sister."

I laughed. "I loved my sister, did you know?"

He shook his head. "I did not know."

"I married my sister," I said, evenly, and met his shocked gaze. "We were twins, orphans that had been placed in two different families, but when I found her again, I married her. We were very happy."

Kanaan laughed softly within my head, connected even more closely to me than when she'd been alive. I stroked her hilt.

"What happened?"

"A youkai king stole her and raped her and begat a child upon her. When the men of my village would not help me save her, I killed them, and then I went up and killed the nine hundred and ninety nine youkai in the castle that held her, whereupon she killed herself. I still don't know why she did that. I think... in some way it was part of my payment that I did that. That I loved like that. I don't know. Now I have her again." I proffered the hilt.

"Your zanpakutou?" Byakuya frowned, but did not reach to touch her. "That is..."

"... like the rest of my life," I said softly and laughed as I sheathed her again. "Very fucked up." I looked at him with my head tilted a little to the side. "I am not your answer, Kuchiki-sama. I am very fond of you, and enjoy your beauty as much as you have enjoyed mine, but my answer should not be yours."

He simply sat there in the moonlight, beautiful lips frowning. I leaned forward and kissed him lightly on those lips, and he sighed and leaned into the gentle caress, his hand warm against my skin. I broke the kiss and said, "Even shudo bows to the needs and demands of family and clan."

I felt him freeze. The control suddenly forming once again over all those feelings and needs. I drew back.

"It does," he said softly and pulled his robes back over his shoulders before sitting in the moonlight for a moment longer. He looked at me and then asked, "Has anyone ever provided for you the mentoring that is involved in shudo?"

I blinked in surprise and thought for a long moment before answering, "Yes." Gojun had taught me as well as he could, both in the bedroom and in the political world of Heaven. I had simply been a very reluctant scholar of the politics, and both of us had felt there was little I could learn in terms of battle capability.

"And they did not correct you with respect to your activities?" Byakuya asked, cool eyes watching me.

I laughed softly. "I think he tried, but when the full horror of what they had been done was clear to him, I like to think that he joined us in our little rebellion, though it was not so clear. We tried..." My voice broke on the word and I coughed to regain my control. "Tried to keep him clear of it, but he ended up writing a report to his superiors."

"Did he write the truth?"

"As he saw it." I nibbled the edge of my thumbnail, longing for another smoke. "But it didn't stop... anything. One of my friends was imprisoned for hundreds of years, the others thrown into mortality from Heaven, and he..." I had to take a breath. "He was so physically crushed he died within weeks of writing the report and no one saved him. There were gods and goddesses that could have healed him with the hem of their gown; but he died."

"Do you know if he chose to or was left to die?" The question was asked so dispassionately I glanced up at Byakuya, but the ice was back and more solid than before. I could not tell what he was thinking or feeling anymore.

"He chose so, I believe. Without justice, he felt no need to stay."

"So he did provide you an example. He chose death instead of duty to a flawed ruler."

I hadn't thought of it that way.

"So we return to my original question, what would be enough? You died twice already, and even your spirit form holds onto this scar." Byakuya's fingers ran over the skin of my scar on my belly. "How many deaths will finally appease you, if not your Heaven?"

"A thousand?" I asked, as I finally thought it through. "That... that doesn't make any sense, does it? Some deserved what they got, but to start counting and to not stop makes no sense."

"Do your old companions still need you?"

That gave me pause as well. "Their lives no longer hang on my presence, no, but..."

The silence was as patient as the moon above us, and as clear.

I sighed and felt Kanaan whisper in my mind. _You have everything you need here. You have me. Our inner world is beautiful here. You should see it, it's like the cottage we set up together when we were married. You don't have to go back to that messed up universe. What would them waiting a few years do? They'll still exist. Like you they are as unlikely to find enlightenment so soon. Here we could be together again, and I'd be happy if you had this handsome man as your sword brother as well. Gojun can have you when he gets you again, but this one... wouldn't he be worth having for a while as well?_

The temptation was terrible. I had never felt at all guilty about my relationship with Kanaan, we'd loved each other far too much for it to be wrong in my mind, but to take advantage of this man and this stability we'd found...

"... but I would endanger you and yours. My mere presence here would bring a kind of conflict you haven't seen before from another heaven. A collision of two worlds that weren't meant to meet."

There, the words were out of my mouth.

He looked at me. "You have no idea what kinds of conflict I have seen, Tenpou."

I gaped at him like a fish. He raised one eyebrow and then ran a finger down my jaw and lifted my chin. I finally closed my mouth and shivered a little as I was cold, as nude as I was in the early spring chill. I pulled on my lab coat, the only thing still whole in the pile of my clothing, and stilled as he pulled off one of his robes to cover me as well.

Finally I said, "You are correct. I do not know anything about what you have fought, only that I think you would do it well. For all I know you could have taken thousands of foes down without blinking one of those long eyelashes of yours."

The runnel of humor was there again, and I relaxed. "Perhaps you know more than you think."

I looked at him, thinking of him in a running battle with a thousand of his hungry ghosts. It fit his fighting style more than I'd realized. "Perhaps. Would you trust me if I said that it would be easier, all around, if you let me actually kill myself?"

"That which is easy is not always worth doing," he said, maddeningly. "Do you not ask that of your sister sometime? Why did she kill herself instead of staying with you?"

_Why did you do that?_ I asked inside my head. I felt Kanaan shrink away for a bit and then sigh.

_Because I had no place in that life of yours, there were powers that would not allow you to be happy after what had happened in Heaven, and I was one of the pieces of their revenge upon you. _

Rage flared within me, cold and edged, and I saw Byakuya's nostrils flare in the wake of it. So he really could sense my mood as well.

_It doesn't have to be that way anymore_, she said softly. _This way we're both out of their hands._

_But what of the others, will they not suffer the consequences of having me out of reach?_

_I do not know, but I do know that many regarded your harsh journey and the prize you regained in return as payment enough. You can't blame the others for a choice you make to remain in pain. You killed the most souls in Heaven, there are reasons your life was that harsh, but it is done. _

_Then why do they still haunt me?_ The memory of the two goons from yesterday was still vivid in my mind.

_I said most were satisfied, but you know how things get in Heaven even better than I do._

I did, indeed. Not everyone moved simply to the Emperor's whims, everyone had their own agenda, their own reasons. Maybe sending those two back would be all there would be.

_And what did Sanzo, Gojyo, and Goku teach you, Tenpou? What is the best thing you remember of your companions?_

I bowed my head. _To survive. To live and to savor life. That no matter what life threw at us, we'd beat it by going on._

I'd spent a whole lifetime surviving at all cost, and the habit was hard to break, for all my talk. I looked at the man before me, he might make survival possible.

"Are you suggesting that I become an apprentice shinigami, and serve here until I get killed in the line of duty?" I asked feeling the press of approval from Kanaan.

"I am," Byakuya said quietly.

I closed my eyes. "Will you be my mentor and accept a shudo relationship with me?"

"So long as you do not report directly to me, yes."

"What?" I opened my eyes at that.

"There are still too many emotions fraught in shudo, and there are plenty of other Captains you could serve in a military sense. You didn't..." He trailed off, looking at me uncertainly.

I didn't say anything about serving under Kenren. At all. However, I suspect that my own amusement must have shown as he covered his eyes with one hand.

"We will not go there, Tenpou."

"Right." I sat there a moment, still getting used to the whole idea. The feeling that this man wanted to bring me into his society, be a part of his universe, with rules of conduct I'd probably never even realize I broke until I was well over the line.

I wondered if he knew how distant I felt from most of humanity, how set apart I'd always been. Then I remembered how lonely he'd felt when we first started our love-making, how everyone in his compound treated him, and having seen his capacity for battle, I had to rethink that. Maybe this man, of all men, knew what it was like.

"I will stay then, Kuchiki Byakuya, for as long as my strength holds out."

"Our strength, Tenpou Gensui, for you will have mine to support you as well." Byakuya stretched and sighed. "Will you not come inside now? For all that the moonlight is beautiful, I would find a warmer place to share with you."

I stood, shrugging off my lab coat, and putting on the robe he'd set on me. I emptied the pockets deliberately, and put what I found into the sleeves of the silken kimono I now wore. With only two I wouldn't lose things into them. New ways, new duties, and a new life along with a new possibility at a connection I could cherish.

Perhaps it would be as transient as the blooming of a cherry tree, but it would be just as worthwhile to savor while I had it.

"Let's go."


End file.
